Yeah, I found myself jotting down nearly everything she said, because it was all so great and so well delivered by Eliza Taylor, exuding all the confidence and strength necessary to convey Clarke's ascension to this point. Kane had noted to Abby in a recent episode that Clarke was pretty much their leader now, but this episode showed Abby wasn’t just accepting of that. The power struggle between mother and daughter was appropriately rough, though it was clear Kane was always basically on Clarke’s side – as he said, he didn’t care about titles, he just wanted to save his people. And he believes Clarke can accomplish that. Abby did reluctantly step aside at the end, though I suppose it remains to be seen if she's completely onboard with her teenage daughter now calling the shots or not.

In the midst of this, it was good to see that even as Clarke firmly and definitively took control, she wasn’t out of control or betraying her beliefs. She wasn’t about to torture their prisoner, after all. Well, okay, granted, giving him that limited amount of air to get back to Mount Weather is pretty intense, but she has to prove she’s not to be trifled with! Plus, the great thing is that a lot of what she was doing was bluffing, insinuating the Grounders had a much larger force at the ready, but she needed to go all in to convince Emerson that any threat she made was real. And damn, he’s certainly going to be convinced now.

Over in Mount Weather, Bellamy was put through the wringer, in an opening sequence -- featuring some notably cool cinematography -- that showed what those chosen for Harvesting go through. The fight between Bellamy and the guard was great, culminating in that intense moment where Bellamy’s newfound Grounder ally incapacitated the guard’s hand, while Bellamy slowly, agonizingly, choked the guy to death. As is now custom, The 100 shows the grit and grime of a situation, making things appropriately messy, rather than making it clean and easy.

I liked Bellamy seeing those kids and telling Clarke they had to come up with a way to not kill everyone in Mount Weather as a result - but I could have done without the big coincidence of Bellamy having a one-on-one encounter with the son of the guy he'd just killed. It just felt a bit forced and not needed, since the kids' presence alone was enough of an eye-opener.

Meanwhile, Jasper had a nice scene with Wallace (very well acted by Devon Bostick) as he confronted Mount Weather’s leader, while also proving unable to hold back his tears while dealing with a situation that was this overwhelming. But while Wallace was quickly able to gain the upper hand – and take control of that sword Jasper had grabbed – Wallace himself was in for a rude awakening soon, as his own son, Cage, took away control of Mount Weather from him.

Yes, both factions in this growing war basically had the same thing happen simultaneously, as the children of the person in charge usurped control. It could feel heavy handed, but it was all set up enough on both sides to feel inevitable and play as an intriguing parallel. And now a big showdown between Clarke and Cage is likely coming.

I don’t like your chances, Cage…

The Verdict

It’s actually a bit surprising that there’s five more episodes left of Season 2, as this installment felt very much like a penultimate chapter, setting up a confrontation that’s been building all season. The 100 is hurtling along right now, delivering a ton of cool character-building along the way – witness Octavia’s continuing and fascinating transformation into a Grounder – while setting the stage for the war with Mount Weather to finally come to fruition.